Orientation device for an appliance system which moves over a surface for the purpose of treating it

A measuring unit (E1) with an electro-optic measuring device which has a plurality of inputs and outputs (11, 12) for beams is arranged in a housing which can be moved on drive wheels (29). The measuring device serves for measuring the distances between the machine and measurement points in the walls which bound the room. The measured values determined are fed to a co-ordinate arithmetic unit (E2) which calculates the co-ordinates of the measurement points and relays them to an orientation memory (E3). An arithmetic unit (E4) checks and correlates the said co-ordinates and reduces the data by preventing identical co-ordinates from being stored repeatedly in the orientation memory. On the basis of the stored co-ordinates, a travel path computer (E5) calculates the path co-ordinates to be travelled, taking account of the data on angle and travel path fed directly to it from the measuring unit (E1). The calculated path co-ordinates are converted in a control section (E6) into command signals which are amplified in a power section (E7) and are relayed thereafter to a drive device (E8). The machine carries, for example, a floor-cleaning unit and moves automatically and systematically over the entire floor surface of the room, so that said surface is thereby cleaned.